What's better than wandering the aisles of a small local market, finding new foods and imagining new possibilities, filling your shopping cart with herbs and spices, pickles and produce, discovering that something you brought home from the market is so good that you want to give it a permanent home in your pantry?

What's better than that?

Having those wonderful pantry items come right to your door. With recipes!

Carmen, who grew up in New Mexico but now lives in Mississippi, where she writes Articles dans la poucan, sent me New Mexico chili powder, which happens to be one of the spices I always keep in my pantry. Unlike the blended chili powder that's a mix of chile pepper, cumin, salt and pepper, this chili powder (which should be called chile powder -- remember the whole "chile with an e" discussion here?) is pure ground long New Mexico green and red chile peppers, varieties with names like Big Jim, Eclipse, Rio Grande, Anaheim, Chimayo, Sunrise, Sunset, Sandia and Española.

(Next post: the other wonderful spice that arrived by mail last week.)

Carmen's black bean soup

In the package with the chili powder, Carmen included several recipes for chili, enchiladas, and this soup. Everyone has his or her own way of making black bean soup, but the texture of Carmen's version intrigued me. I've added onions, because I can't seem to make soup without them. Serves 2.

Ingredients

Directions

In a food processor, grind one can of black beans (with the liquid in the can). In a sauce pan, add oil and onion, and sauté until the onion is translucent. Add the black bean puree from the processor, the second can of black beans (with the liquid in the can), and all remaining ingredients. Simmer on lowest heat until thickened, stirring often to keep the soup from burning, 2-3 hours.

Treat yourself to a weekend in Providence, which has become one hot foodie destination. Visit the Johnson & Wales Culinary Archives, eat at the famous Al Forno or New Rivers or the hip new Local 121. Start with our Menu for Hope prize, generously offered by Rhode Island Market Tours:

Item #UE12. Two tickets to SHOPPING FEDERAL HILL: AN INSIDER'S FOOD TOUR, a three-hour culinary tour of Providence, Rhode Island's, most famous Italian food neighborhood. Taste your way through "The Hill" as Cindy Salvato, an executive pastry chef and cooking instructor, takes you behind the scenes and into market and bakery kitchens, sampling bread, cheese, antipasto and vino along the way. Good for any scheduled tour before December 31, 2008 (tours run on Saturdays and some weekdays, throughout the year); tickets are transferable but not refundable. This $90 value can be yours for $10 (hint, hint: the more tickets you buy, the more chances you have to win).

Bake. Decorate. Donate. It's a simple idea. Bake some cookies. Invite friends, family, co-workers, or neighbors to help decorate. Donate your cookies to a local agency serving people in need, and "give back" while having fun.

Planning a Drop In & Decorate event? Please let me know (lydia AT ninecooks DOT com) so we can share the fun.

"I love Drop In & Decorate for the gathering of the community. To see old and new friends gathered around a table of cookies with icing in hand brings a smile to my face every year!" Jennifer, volunteer

Disclosure: The Perfect Pantry earns a few pennies on purchases made through the Amazon.com links in this post. Thank you for supporting this site when you start your shopping here.

Great spice! Chili spices do boost immunity. Whenever I have a cold I go for the spicy soup. And my herbalist said that if I have a weird stomach problem to eat something spicy with chilies because it will make your gut inhospitable to the bad stuff that is plaguing it.

I've been hungry for chili lately - this sounds even better.
Now, I noticed something called 'spice for chile/e (roughly translated) at the store last week... Think I'll buy ir and see if I can figure out what it is!

Great description of chile powder and interesting recipe for black bean soup. This was such a fun event -- Katie and Lindsay are so great for thinking it up. Nothing better than getting spices in the mail!

Yup, hot sauce of the month. They send two hot sauce kind of things each month (sauce, jellies, rubs, salsa, etc). Definitely good stuff and keeps me trying great new things I might not have otherwise bought.

Sher, do stock up when you find this brand -- at least out here on the East Coast, it's not all that easy to find except in the Latino grocery stores. I always feel better when the pantry is filled with hot and spicy things.

Laurie, welcome to The Perfect Pantry. I had such fun waiting for my surprise package, and sending mine off (to Sher!). Look forward to doing more spice exchanges.

Mike, this definitely appeals to me!! Will have to check it out. (note to husband who might be reading this comment: wouldn't hot sauce of the month be a great present for your favorite cook?)

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Welcome to The Perfect Pantry®

My name is Lydia Walshin. From my tiny kitchen in Boston's South End, I share recipes that use what we keep in our pantries, the usual and not-so-usual ingredients that spice up our lives. Thanks so much for visiting.